Climate change adaptation in Africa: fostering resilience and capacity to adapt
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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer International Publishing AG
Abstract
It is widely known that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate
change. As the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) produced by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has shown, climate change is expected to have
widespread impacts on African societies and Africans’ interaction with the natural
environment. There are also signs that the impacts of climate change are already
being felt, not only in terms of increases in temperature, but also in respect of
agriculture (with lower crop yields) and the availability of water resources, among
others. The links between climate change and the incidence of diseases such as
malaria are also becoming clearer.
The above state of affairs illustrates the need for a better understanding of how
climate change affects African countries, and for the identification of processes,
methods and tools which may help African nations to adapt. There is also a per-
ceived need to showcase successful examples of how to cope with the social,
economic and political problems posed by climate change in Africa.
It is against this background that the “Symposium on Climate Change
Adaptation in Africa” was organised by Manchester Metropolitan University (UK),
Addis Ababa University, the Research and Transfer Centre “Applications of Life
Sciences” of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and the
International Climate Change Information Programme (ICCIP). The Symposium,
held in Addis Ababa in February 2016, was a truly interdisciplinary event,
mobilising African and non-African scholars undertaking research and/or executing
climate change projects in the African continent.
This book, which contains a set of papers presented at the Symposium, focuses
on “Fostering African Resilience and Capacity to Adapt”, meaning that it will serve
the purpose of showcasing experiences from research, field projects and best
practice in climate change adaptation in African countries, which may be useful or
implemented in other countries in the continent.
Consistent with the need for more cross-sectoral interactions among the various
stakeholders working in the field of climate change adaptation in the African
continent, this book aims to: i. provide research institutions, universities, NGOs and enterprises from Africa
and those working in Africa with an opportunity to display and present their
works in the field of climate change adaptation;
ii. foster the exchange of information, ideas and experiences acquired in the
execution of climate change adaptation projects, especially successful initia-
tives and good practice across the African continent;
iii. introduce methodological approaches and experiences deriving from case
studies and projects, which aim to show how climate change adaptation may
be implemented in practice; and
iv. to network African and non-African experts, and provide a platform so they
can explore possibilities for cooperation.
Last but not least, a further aim of this book is to document and disseminate the
wealth of experiences available today.
This book is divided into two parts:
• Part 1 contains papers that describe the adaptation methods and approaches.
• Part 2 entails institutional experiences on adaptation, as well as case studies,
examples of projects and of good practice
We thank the authors for their willingness to share their knowledge, know-how
and experiences, as well as the many peer reviewers, which have helped us to
ensure the quality of the manuscripts. Thanks are also due to Magdalena Salewski
for her valuable support for the manuscripts.
Enjoy your reading!
Description
Journal article
Keywords
Climate change, Forest resilience, Climate change adaptation